EDIT: Looks like Mark Duggan (the excuse) did not fire upon Police before they shot him. This should be good for another few days of rioting/ looting.
The UK is in the crapper. It's economy is in the crapper. It's people are in the crapper. The police force are like deer in the headlights waiting on instructions from higher ups on how to contain the situation.
Riots are happening all over the Britain. Social media and Blackberry texts have made the rioters organized.
Make no mistake these are not riots based on one guy getting shot. These are simply opportunistic deadbeats running around strip mining anything that isn't nailed down. The cops have trained and retrained to be sensitive to racial tensions so much so that they would rather stand by than interfere and be called a racist. They have become a response force reliant on street cameras to do the actual detection. Unfortunately, that is reactive and not proactive. Street cameras don't prevent crime they simply help in a conviction. Usually those convictions are revenue generating like running a stop light.
The riots started with the cops taking the brunt of it. It swiftly moved to burning cars, buildings and of course looting. It has taken a turn for the worse where now it is mob mentality and prison mentality rules. The looters are now turning their attention on other citizens. Peaceful citizens are being forced to disrobe in the streets by thugs. Idiots are displaying their loot on Facebook and bragging about their new video game collections. UK Joe Sixpack is calling on his govt to do something. Anything.
Unfortunately the average UK citizen has no legal means to defend himself other than the size of his boot or fist. So until the Army steps in or the Cops get organized and grow a pair the average guy is screwed. Here in lies the lesson.
Useful links: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023667/London-riots-Looter-posts-photo-booty-Facebook.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8689004/London-riots-why-did-the-police-lose-control.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023554/Tottenham-riot-2011-London-lockdown-David-Cameron-flies-home.html
The UK is in the crapper. It's economy is in the crapper. It's people are in the crapper. The police force are like deer in the headlights waiting on instructions from higher ups on how to contain the situation.
Riots are happening all over the Britain. Social media and Blackberry texts have made the rioters organized.
Make no mistake these are not riots based on one guy getting shot. These are simply opportunistic deadbeats running around strip mining anything that isn't nailed down. The cops have trained and retrained to be sensitive to racial tensions so much so that they would rather stand by than interfere and be called a racist. They have become a response force reliant on street cameras to do the actual detection. Unfortunately, that is reactive and not proactive. Street cameras don't prevent crime they simply help in a conviction. Usually those convictions are revenue generating like running a stop light.
The riots started with the cops taking the brunt of it. It swiftly moved to burning cars, buildings and of course looting. It has taken a turn for the worse where now it is mob mentality and prison mentality rules. The looters are now turning their attention on other citizens. Peaceful citizens are being forced to disrobe in the streets by thugs. Idiots are displaying their loot on Facebook and bragging about their new video game collections. UK Joe Sixpack is calling on his govt to do something. Anything.
Unfortunately the average UK citizen has no legal means to defend himself other than the size of his boot or fist. So until the Army steps in or the Cops get organized and grow a pair the average guy is screwed. Here in lies the lesson.
Useful links: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023667/London-riots-Looter-posts-photo-booty-Facebook.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8689004/London-riots-why-did-the-police-lose-control.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2023554/Tottenham-riot-2011-London-lockdown-David-Cameron-flies-home.html
7 comments:
I've spent the whole evening in contact with friends in the UK, all of whom have witnessed and, in some cases, been directly affected by the events. We're all in shock.
For those who don't know, the police in the UK are not (and have never been) armed. We like it that way. Private ownership of guns is amongst the most strictly regulated in the world. We want it that way. Water canon has never been used on the mainland, unlike throughout Europe. Thank goodness it's that way. Tear gas (the anti-riot weapon of choice in neighbouring France) is unheard of. Merci a dieu. And no modern Prime Minister could ever be responsible for another Peterloo Massacre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterloo_Massacre). We demand it that way.
These are the values and beliefs that make us British. But if order is not restored tonight, then all of the above is at risk. There probably will be little choice but to deploy the army. This makes me weep with frustration and pity for my country, a country which I once thought I understood.
We have become a nation in fear of its own children - and there can be few indictments of a society greater than that.
I guess the point I was trying to make was the cops have become so dependent on technology they no longer know how to be physical cops. They lack the practical knowledge of patrolling streets beyond handing out parking tickets leaving the citizens to fend for themselves. They lack the leadership and have been programmed not to be seen as racist they are no longer effective. Unfortunately the citizens are not equipped to deal with these rioters either.
I hope your friends and family are safe.
A Limey and a Yank are unlikely to ever agree on gun control (two nations divided by a common language, and all that). But apart from that I agree with much/most of what you said, actually. The police have failed in this situation, and they have been failed by their political masters too. This means that previously unthinkable measures are the only ones left available in the toolbox.
What I fear is the loss of civil liberties as a result of this madness. And I think we can all agree on that.
Update: the army has apparently already been placed on standby (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/09/uk-riots-police-tough-lockdown)
"One army unit, the 3rd Rifles based in Glasgow, was also on put on notice so that it is ready to deploy at 12 hours' notice."
BTW - the Guardian is a far superior source for news in the UK than the Daily Mail (nicknamed the Daily Heil or the Daily Fail...) Ironically, given this topic, it came into being as a response to the Peterloo Massacre...
Yeah I know it's a sensationalist rag. I much prefer the the "Daily Sport" :)
They (DM) seem to have a few more boots on the ground though. They (DM) seem a little less afraid of not being seen to be politically correct.
If the Govt are still talking about Army boots on the ground 12 hrs out then they are waiting for the riots to just fizzle out.
Speaking of this. I read this article earlier
http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/09/7316057-riots-reveal-londons-two-disparate-worlds
that absolutely set my ass on fire. So we're supposed to understand the youth's frustration since they can't afford a flat screen TV or a laptop computer? Give me a break. Find a job. Relocate and work on a crab boat. Relocate. Work on an oil platform. Relocate. Work in a mine. Learn to weld two pieces of metal together. Learn a trade. Never in history has everyone had so much (electricity, running water, septic, cable television, cell phones, clothing, etc) and yet bitched so much that they deserve more. Look at Somalia FFS and then convince me that these youths have it bad. What they have bad is a case of the cryass.
That aside, inherently the people who own those businesses have a right to defend their property and themselves if the government is unwilling or unable to do so. To me what is most damning is from everything I've seen both the people and the government are afraid to really stand up against these hooligans and miscreants.
Personally I think our friends the Brits who are letting this happen need to order in some nice steel toed Kodiak boots from across the pond and start putting a boot in the ass of these people.
I liked the last line in the article "A final thought. One reporter pointed out that in Clapham where the shopping area had been picked clean, the only shop left unlooted and untouched was the book shop."
Some parts of London etc remind me of Detroit.
Jeanne would be better able to speak to social conditions in these places.
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